Wi-Fi Usage in public – Do’s and Dont’s

Recently I was going through an article which discusses about the security of the public Wi-Fi usage that is offered for free at Airports, Hotels, Coffee shops etc., The article discusses about many threats to the transactions that a user makes over that network.

Please do remember that all the transactions that you make over such public Wi-Fi networks or hot spots are UNENCRYPTED. 😦

That means anyone else on the network who is equipped with readily available software can read your transmissions with little effort. And when there is protection, it’s likely to be a form of simple encryption called Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) which can be easily broken with little effort.

All Wi-Fi networks equipped with Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), a stronger form of security are safer to an extent.

Security of websites can be determined by some indications on the browsers. Indications on the two most popular web browsers are as shown below:

Internet Explorer shows a “ ” symbol to indicate a secure website, whereas the Mozilla makes the browser bar “Golden Color” to indicate that it is a secure website that you are browsing. Use these to identify and be safe with your transactions against hackers.